#but she was interested in what it was so i said its like a forum for fanmade fiction and stuff

[frybolg]

im too old and too tired

read omegaverse, give people your most deprived ao3 fics as recs, enjoy dead dove do not eat

also

remember there are people who do *not* have internet brain rot and they are best given a slightly more tame fic to read

they'll find all of that on their own

be prepared to give them 'the talk' when they do (kudos, comment and bookmark. your bookmarks aren't private. don't be feral with punctuation because it's bad for screen readers. filter what you don't like out)

[koiiiji]

windbreaker characters as parents ༘⋆🌷🫧💭 ⋆˙

tw ; cuteness overload, contains character x character and character x reader

pairings ; min u x mia, shelly x jay jo, dom x reader, monster x reader, vinny x reader

౨ৎ let's start from min u and mia! proud parents of a girl and boy who are three years apart. girl is the older sister and goes along with her brother super well even through his puberty. mia is a great mother and her kids never hide anything from her as they know that they can trust her. mia and her daughter have their own "girls secrets" and side jokes, while min u and his son are super annoyed by it and tried to make their own side jokes, but girls always know its context. also, their grandad and auntie yuna spoil them so much!!! and also min u father are so proud of his son and he really likes mia. all in all 10/10 highly recommended to be born in this family.

౨ৎ shelly and jay. here things are more complicated because shelly parents insisted on them move in the UK during her pregnancy, but they decided to stay in Korea simply because shelly likes weather more and feel more comfortable there. life blessed them with a boy - a copy of his father. but he is a mummy's boy and he gets along with shelly more, even their son's first word was "mama!" when he happily squished shelly’s cheek with his small hands. with time, he builds more interests with jay’s hobbies, so till he hit his puberty he was such a sweet child. but when he turned 14? monster that going through "nobody understands me" era. sometimes jay wonders maybe he need to send his son to his mother so she will teach him some discipline, but then jay remembers that he doesn't want to give his child such trauma. by the way jay family calmed down the moment jay was accepted on the really well paid job and even his mother was proud that her son has international family. all in all 7/10 bc both jay and shelly parents would have a beef over who is better grandparents.

౨ৎ so i can imagine that dom would accept his father's business even tho he didn't insist. so you two were gifted with three daughters each with year apart. dom honestly wished his first would be a boy so he can grow up and protect his sisters, but fate had her own ideas. through your second pregnancy dom repeated that he would be happy for girl or boy, just healthy, strong child (he prayed for a boy), and you decided not to find out who you were going to have until the baby was born. and it was sweet, super calm girl. on third pregnancy dom really tried to have a boy (yes, he scrolled all that weird mums forums to find out in which pose you can conceive a boy). he has genuinely been surprised when doctor said you will have a girl. who was the happiest over the fact that he surrounded by girls? his father!! he loves all four of you, and dom suspect that his father loves you more than him. he definitely would call you daughter and generally he is super granddad and father-in-law. your daughters loves their granddad too!! imagine them cling to him from all sides, hanginig on his neck, arms and legs. generally girls goes along super good, but oldest and youngest are more close to their father as they share extrovert personality, while middle girl gets super along with you. dom are scared that they are growing up too fast and that in one day they will start dating b̴̨̢̰͖̂ͫͨ̒ͦͩơ̷̧̢̛̤̠̻͔̤̖̳͖̥̼̲̮̥̣̼̮̂̽̓ͮ͆̉ͩ͆ͣͧ̿ͫ́͋ͩ̏̚̕̚͜͞y̶̢͎̜̬͖̩̰̬̞̓͌̽͆̈́̉̑ͨ̂ͧ͌̌̇̅͗͌͘͜͟s̶̸̢͉͙͈̳̻̣̲͔̜̩ͮ̌̃̄̄̓̍̽͌̈́͑́͑ͩ͟͠͝ 💀☠️ all in all 9/10 dom vibes with his favourite girls but one one stingy male tear drops when he sees fathers play baseball with their sons (he was hitted in the nose with a ball from his youngest daughter)

౨ৎ when you and deokbong announced that you will have a child, people were... curious - how?? how you would be able to carry his child since you look so small in comparison to him. and you know what? it was twin boys... the birth was difficult but you did it and then you faced new challenge - both boys was copy of their father and they was heavy. you prayed for your back, seriously, but deokbong is super supportive husband and father so he was always there to help you. thankfully your boys were calm. like literally they always had serious faces, fists clenched and almost never cried. with time your younger one maintained your character and more of your features showed, like brows and nose form, cheeks, and face shape. all in all 10/10 you four would be happy simple sport family!!

౨ৎ vinny hong refuse to have children. end of headcanon.

but seriously, vinny had huge trauma from his father and from bulling in school, he will never be sure that he is enough as financially and emotionally for kids, so you two are proud parents of one big dog, maybe doberman or cane corso and lazy cat. all in all 7/10 just because there are too much wool at home and vinny refuse to go on a walk with dog in the early morning.

[palaceofpassion]

Any fun developments in householdarc au?

What do other teams think of them having a caretaker? What do they think of Jaune?

Has Jaune made any friends at Beacon?

"So." Weiss pointed at the screen in front of her, "I was doing research on the schools forums. And apparently there was a topic about our caretaker." She muttered, being ever the nosy one, always looking to make new contacts, and more connections, she had gone out of her way to advertise assistances she could provided... only to find out, that apparently Jaune was the talk of the town, or well school.

"Really? That's... odd, why would they talk about Jaune?" Pyrrha, wasn't exactly interested in technology, beyond what it could do for her huntress career at least... so she wasn't exactly an expert when it came to finding information on the schools website.

"Well, apparently, its more of a rant thread? Or a discussion on why we even have someone assisting us, when others don't." Weiss couldn't exactly put it into words, "It started as that, anyways... but then it just came down to their opinions of him, and some of them are a little... very grotesque."

She pulled away from the screen, as two pairs of green eyes, and two pairs, including her own, of blue eyes scanned the computer.

"What... that's..." May was baffled, her one good eye blinking as she stared at a couple of lines that caught her attention.

CardnRIz: Bet he sniffs their clothing, probably a HUGE pervert.

BerretQNE: Projecting much? He's alright, though those kids are lucky, wish I had someone to do all my chores for me, must be nice.

Bunny4U: Coco... you don't do any of the chores as it is... he's alright, I think? Has anyone actually seen him much around campus?

PinknSweet: OH OH I have! Rennie and I were in the cafeteria for third lunch, and he was there taking notes from the cafe ladies and checking ingredients! Rennie does that ALL The time! So they started doing it together.

Yangnbang: Think he's shagging any of em? Wonder if the Ice Queen's putting out~ Though, considering how tiny their group is, he probably prefers the big and tall type. Both have loosened up lately, so maybe they're getting some dick.

cookieLuvaer: EEWW Yang! That's disgusting! And I dunno. Seems kind of weird to have someone always working for you.

BacknBlack: Hmm... a love triangle... no no! A love pentagon, all from different social backgrounds... I can see it. Perhaps there is plenty of sneaking behind the others back in this case.

BerretQNE: My money's on one of the silent short stacks. Bet they get extra freaky-

"Okay, I think that's enough Weiss!" Jessica quickly used her semblance to press the power button- "Hey!"- It was clear to Jess, that things were getting out of hand, "That was... all very vulgar. And wrong."

She shuffled around nervously, while May said nothing, her cheeks simply flushed red. Her eye darting back and forth in a spout of confusion and embarrassment.

"Right... so, I think the problem is, that he doesn't talk to anyone... we have to get him to make friends. Or these rumors are going to keep getting worse."

Pyrrha nodded, yes... friends. That was something she needed to do as well, but she supposed Weiss was right. "But he doesn't... really go out much, does he? I think he's friends with Ren from RRBY... But that's it."

Weiss chewed upon her bottom lip, unsure of even that. Not like she'd know how to make friends...

Actually, all four of them were bad at it, now that they thought about it.

[matan4il]

911 ep 701 first watch reactions

(I don't think I have the energy to write proper Buddie meta, so here's me randomly squealing instead...)

LMAO In case you were wondering whether s7 of 911 will be subtle about their gratitude/debt to ABC for saving the show, the answer is a resounding no.

Also, I have lost a lot of respect for Frank as a shrink, but gained a lot of love for him as a sass king. "Did she win!?" The murderous look Athena gave him was priceless. I love her, too. She doesn't even need words to rule.

Man, nooooo. Don't give me a mutual "I love you" between Bobby and Athena like that.

"Go ahead and cut the green wire." Everyone and their sister: "Green? You said Red."

9-1-1 is the superior comedy they slipped into our drink, while we were here for our weekly action, suspense, drama and familial love.

Buck broke off with Natalia, and the show really did it like that. XD Every single person who rolled their eyes at this pairing during s6, we were all justified, but wow. The show really is the only forum to respect the pair even less than fandom does. And of course we find out about it in the middle of a scene built around Eddie being half naked, Buck watching him, with the camera specifically turning so we can discover Buck was initially covered by Eddie's body, and the angle change reveals him, when the whole thing wraps up with Eddie welcoming Buck back to the land of the living... Yeah, wonder what made Buck feel alive again. Don't know. 'Tis a mystery. We were given zero clues...

"I want the honeymoon life." *cries* Chimney is just such a good, good man. And okay, expecting your whole life to be a honeymoon's a bit unrealistic, but Madney are living together and they have a child. They know this. Chim knows this, but he still wants to go for it. Aim for the moon, you'll at least land among the stars, right?

Bobby baffled by Athena's reaction to Norman and Lola is hilarious.

I like how Chim has a great idea, but it's still obvious that it's gonna go wrong, because he can't help going overboard with it...

OMG, that scene with Eddie recounting to Buck what Christopher's date was like... If I were to write my Buddie meta, I would serve a three course meal just from that. I mean, the fact that watching Chris hanging out with a girl he likes, makes Eddie compare it to "hanging out with his guy friends" (when there's no lack of interest in this girl... in fact, it turns out that if anything, Christopher's problem is the opposite of a lack of interest) is so telling. There's a reason why that's where Eddie's mind went.

But then also... Eddie's trust in Buck got to me, the way he went to his best friend (not his own gf) for help with Chris. But that was still played with half a smile. But then Buck sort of disses himself jokingly, and Eddie won't have it. "You didn't end up like you." He sees how Buck worked on being a better person, even when Eddie wasn't there for the worst of it, and he appreciates it, and won't let Buck forget it. Meeeep. I love them.

Oh Chim. I was giving you so much credit, and then you went and bought that outdoors jacuzzi. lol Still love him. That's what Maddie's reminding herself of right now, too. ;p

Poor Hen, she was great in this ep, but none of it was really about her, she was comic relief, both with Chim and with the red wire. Then again, she was amazing in this, like she always is with everything.

Eddie and Buck were both so good with Chris this ep, MY HEART. Buck with getting him to talk about what's really bothering him, and Eddie with realizing exactly what his son needs, and how to give it to him. They completed each other. Neither one would be helping Chris without the other one. Tell me again how they're not soulmates?

In conclusion, I love Bobby saying, "Let's go prove one of us wrong," when they're both right. Something WAS going on with Norman and Lola, AND Athena was using them to avoid him.

Argh. That scene of the ship and its passengers being hijacked was rough to watch. </3 I'll still be here to watch the conclusion of this. That's the power of 9-1-1 for you.

It def felt like a great kick to the new season. We had lots of comedy and fun, some great tension, some emotional moments (especially with Christopher), but all in all, it's still clear that the whole thing's a build up to next week. Are you excited?

[mommybard]

Hi Mommy!

Do you have any advice/thoughts on finding people in the kinky community to date?

I have my beautiful, wonderful partner and we do share a lot of the same kinks but there's some she doesn't like. I'd love to like meet people in general (imma huge introvert) but also to date. I am polyam and haven't dated much beyond my partner. (and yes being off anon would help lol)

Anyway, thank you! Keep being you.

🌿

I want to preface this with the fact that I have fumbled my way into damn near every relationship I've ever been in, usually with me being fucking oblivious that the other person was into me and wasn't just like...playfully flirting until they just fully admit to wanting to date and my response is usually just going sure let's try it. So my experience here for the dating aspect is more through other people/being part of communities.

That being said, my main advice would be to reach out to your local scene. Most cities have at least one if not more, with each usually centered around a few clubs or dungeons. They tend to be pretty welcoming to people, though from personal experience def feel the waters and see if its like a safe healthy place first, before opening yourself to dating there. There are plenty of healthy communities accepting all body types and accepting the many varieties of gender and gender expression people have. There are other ones that go hard on bioessentialism or nonsense like only skinny subs are wanted or other shitty behaviors. Avoid the latter.

A lot of the safer communities have like, a vetting process where they kinda wanna get a feel of you first before fully welcoming. That's done mostly to protect their communities. They want to make sure you're there for ethical kink, to become a safe and healthy member of their community, and so they can keep unsafe people or abusers out of those spaces.

If you are okay with long distance stuff, there are plenty of places online where kinksters gather. That can be a bit varied on the experience based on who's running the place you're gathering and what else is going on in it. Discords, Reddit Communities, Bluesky Communities, some forums are still running for kinksters to join, etc etc. If you already have some friends into kink, ask em if they're personally a part of any of them and they might be able to shoot you a direct invite. I personally tend to lean more for the spaces that talk about things outside of just kink, cause it gives you a chance to nerd out about your special interest or hobbies and hopefully find a connection to others there. I've seen quite a few people nerd about something nonkink related together in kink servers and then like a few weeks later get a "Oh we're dating now" update.

From one introvert to another, I know it sucks that the advice is basically "Put yourself out there!" but like...and I can't believe I'm saying this, the extroverts may possibly have a point with that SINGLE PIECE OF ADVICE. At least until I can find a better way and prove them wrong.

[homestuckreplay]

I Hope We Find Each Other In All Lifetimes (For Crime)

(page 1774-1788)

exiles update! exiles update! I am so incredibly excited to be continuing PM’s story and getting to know the Courtyard Droll, especially after catching a glimpse of the lab where the agents are engineered, which totally changes my understanding of them.

First, John puts on the Junior Ectobiologist’s Lab Suit, which not only perfectly fits him but even has his Green Slime Ghost shirt symbol on its belt. Months ago from John’s perspective, gallowsCalibrator called him ‘4 TOT4L D1SGR4C3 TO TH3 F13LD OF 3CTOB1OLOGY’ (p.1528), so clearly she saw him in this lab, wearing this suit, practicing this science. This caused John to change his username to ectoBiologist, and to start thinking of himself in these terms, like his ‘fondness for PARANORMAL LORE’ (p.4), which then makes him ready to put on the suit. That’s a neat closed loop, but there is a bigger destiny at play here which has yet to be revealed – John has been into Ghostbusters and the green slime ghost since before this conversation, and Skaia has set up this suit for John as part of his Sburb playthrough.

John also sees his first Sburb house terminal, which is just like those in WV and PM’s bunker. The narrative text here gives a quick switch from John’s perspective to an omniscient perspective:

NOW WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON IN HERE??? Of course it's obvious what's going on in here. It's another one of those four monitored house-shaped terminal thingies. (p.1776)

This is interesting to me because of what I’ve read about Hussie’s writing process. They’ve talked on Formspring about sticking to specific rules when it comes to character voice in pesterlogs, and I think the same is true of information – John in chatlogs often reminds us that he’s clueless about things that are already well known to the reader. The narrative text is more complicated. I cannot find this again which means it probably came from a forum, but somewhere Hussie said that Jade’s ‘oh fuck!!!!!!’ after uprooting Dave’s toilet (p.1406) was because of an earlier ‘fuck’ in the narrative text of a Jade page – likely ‘FROZEN FUCKING TUNDRA’ (p.810) – which some readers saw as ‘out of character’ for Jade.

I think that equating ‘fun, happy character’ to ‘doesn’t say fuck’ is a weird assumption for those readers to make, but that aside, I guess it’s unclear how intentional the character voice and perspective in narrative text is. Hussie has also said on Formspring that they have no formal writing training, so a lot of what they do is instinctive and just comes from reading other stories. I don’t know how much they’re aware of the formal techniques they use throughout the Homestuck narration – focalization and free indirect style – but these sudden shifts into and out of a character’s mind are jarring, but in a way that still works for me. (I am inventing a strawman in my mind of an old literary professor who hates it though).

Skaia’s agents being genetically engineered through ectobiology honestly explains a lot for me. Despite the uniform, factory-produced design of (for example) the imps, everything in the Incipisphere is a sentient being who breathes, eats, has some equivalent of flesh, is prone to random emotional changes via the imperfections of the brain, etc, more than a computer-generated construct as I’ve previously looked at them. I think it is MUCH harder to control a truly sentient creature, especially their minds – and while we’ve seen Skaia implant thoughts into people’s minds often, there’s no evidence that it can read minds. Real people are affected dramatically by the people surrounding us, and have complex relationships to power, authority and hierarchy.

So viewing the agents as people it makes perfect sense that a Parcel Mistress or a Jack Noir would behave somewhat differently after spending time with a different player group, and will in all sessions be navigating their own relationship to Skaia and to each other. I also think that each agent contains a tiny part of Skaia’s own power, as they were created by it, which makes it possible for these agents to both imagine and create a life outside of what’s been programmed for them. I am still uncertain how Skaia feels about its agents breaking out of their predefined roles and exerting this agency: does it actively want this as it contributes to the customized experience of each session, does it passively tolerate this to the extent that it doesn’t threaten Skaia’s power, or is it trying and failing to stop this happening?

All of that to say, it’s cool that AR takes a moment away from The Law to do some sick rocketboard tricks. It’s not a dramatic change in mindset for him, just a moment where he breaks his own rules because nobody is looking and it’s fun.

Then, PM gets on a shuttle – some old fashioned transport in a universe of spirograph gates, rockets and transportalizers. Maybe it’s not possible to transportalize directly to Skaia, and it has to be reached via ‘old fashioned’ means. If I was a Sburb exile my fixation would be public transport; I would be constructing buses, trains and trams all over the desert wasteland. Anyway you can tell this is PM’s first rodeo going on a super secret triple agent mission because the dark regisword is just hanging out the top of her mailbag, super obvious, and the queen’s ring is just in her pocket ripe for the picking. PM is my favorite forever but she did fuck up with this one, especially since the queen was so clear that ‘the RING must be designated for protection’ (p.1619).

The Courtyard Droll is probably taking this ring back to Jack – the Sovereign Slayer – so that nobody can rise against him as an equal power. But, will he wear this ring too? What happens if somebody wears both the white and black queens’ rings? Do they have a combined effect? Do they actually cancel each other out? Can the white ring even be worn by a black chess piece, or would it not affect them at all?

CD appears via a slow zoom – first the tip of his hat, then the rest of his hat, then his head, and finally his outfit with the club symbol (p.1781-4). It surprises me that this is a sequence of still images when similar moments have been gifs, from Dad’s car falling into the abyss (p.291) to John’s near-loss and then rescue of the Con Air bunny (p.1599). As I see it, there’s two big differences in these techniques. First, a gif only adds one to the page count, so is good for a fast-paced story or one the author is trying to keep short, while a series of still images adds multiple pages, good when an author is trying to add length or make a moment take up ‘more’ of the story. Second, a gif happens to the reader in a defined length of time, limiting the amount of suspense possible. I was genuinely scared John was going to lose that bunny, but only for a few seconds until the gif showed me the bunny’s rescue. A series of still images is reader-controlled. We choose when to go from one to the next, so if we’re intended to speculate on whose hat this might be, we have infinite time to actively speculate before tabbing to the next page, even though the pages were posted together.

But unquestionably the most exciting development here (to me) is the reformation of the Midnight Crew. We’ve now seen all four of these agents separately, with the corresponding suit on their uniforms – Jack Noir (p.952), who later became the Sovereign Slayer (p.1668), the Hegemonic Brute (p.957), the Draconian Dignitary (p.1532), and the Courtyard Droll (p.1784). I think we can assume that except for SS, the Intermission MC had these same jobs before being exiled, as it gives them the same initials duality as this session’s exiles. So, a quick rundown of the names:

Sovereign Slayer – The violent killer of a monarch. Spades Slick wanted to do this just as badly, but wasn’t able to (p.1266)

Hegemonic Brute – A violent, unintelligent person who upholds the dominant class or ideology. Perfect for the muscle of the group who follows orders from above.

Draconian Dignitary – A cruel, unnecessarily severe person of high societal station. Works well since he’s always seemed like the most calculating member of the group, and like SS’ number two.

Courtyard Droll – A fool or jester who performs in the outdoor space of a castle. A ‘court jester’ is an entertainer at a royal court, and is definitely being evokes here. Basically, a silly guy who people like. (possibly notable that we meet him on Prospit, a brighter, happier place, after meeting the other three on Derse).

I do find it beautiful that the Midnight Crew came together in this universe too, and fell into the same gang structure with the same heist goals. So often in fiction, soulmates who come together over and over despite not knowing or remembering their past relationship is reserved for romantic partners, and seeing it happen for a gang of criminals is a cool subversion. This walkie-talkie conversation is exactly like the ones in the Intermission, and the agents appear to have the same personalities as their Midnight Crew counterparts. Especially the Courtyard Droll, whose admission that he’d ‘still rather wear the outfit’ (p.1788) is just like Clubs Deuce’s believe that ‘all of these clocks are lovely’ (p.1180). Absolute king of being whimsical and not bowing to the aesthetic preferences of his friends.

[more-better-words]

Day 20!

🤫

Monica was drawing, though not in one of her paper sketchbooks, but with a stylus on a PADD. Karveth watched her fondly for a moment, her brow set, the tip of her pink tongue escaping her lips as she concentrated, before he got up to fetch them both something to drink.

He set her orange seltzer on the table at her elbow, pausing to drop a kiss on the top of her head, when he saw what she was working on, and blinked in slow confusion.

Rows of oval faces on a blue background, with stick-like antennae set in a variety of moods and emotions. He couldn't help himself. "What is-?" She glanced up at him, eyes cutting sheepishly sidelong.

"Uh…okay. So there's this subspace forum…"

A community of humans interested in Andoria and Andorians, she explained, that she had first discovered after meeting him. "I had a crush on you!" she exclaimed. "I was desperate!" But as their relationship had grown, she'd come to realize just how little real knowledge its members had.

"They're nice people, for the most part. And they want to learn. But most of them have never had the chance to meet an Andorian, let alone get to know one. So I've tried to… set some facts straight, clear up some misinformation."

He chose his words carefully. "How… open have you been?"

"Not that open," she said firmly. "And I'm certainly not bragging or anything. It's… well, it's stuff like this." She held up the PADD. "Most humans don't know how to read Andorian expressions because they don't know what you're doing with your antennae. I was making a visual aid."

"You've never had any trouble reading my expressions. Or my antennae."

She moved a shoulder diffidently. "They've just always made sense to me. But not everybody's like me, so…"

He smiled faintly. No, no one was like her. Faced with an alien, she could intuit his mood as well as any of his own kind. She called it getting along with people. He called it a mythic gift, on par with any power attributed to a hero of antiquity. His gaze returned to her 'visual aid', and he snorted at the red eyed sketch for RAGE, its antennae properly low and backswept in anger. "Do you think this will help?"

"I hope so. They really are just curious - even now, most average folks on Earth very rarely get the opportunity to interact with an Andorian. And you have to admit," she added, smiling winningly, "your people are very interesting."

He smiled back, the flattery having done its work. "I suppose education is a noble goal."

"Exactly! And maybe it'll shut up some of the Antennae Enthusiasts."

"The what?"

She looked askance. "Some of the posters are really into antennae. Like… a lot."

He raised dubious eyebrows. "More so than you?"

"Hey! I have permission! And I don't go around thinking things like this-" She tapped aggressively at her PADD for a moment before thrusting it at him, "-are okay or sexy!"

Instead of her drawing, a poorly formatted string of speculation regarding the sexual possibilities of Andorian antennae - all of it remarkably incorrect - now filled the screen. His eyebrows climbed even higher. "That is neither arousing nor hygienic."

"See what I'm up against?"

He handed her back the PADD. "I was wrong," he admitted. "This is more than education. This is war."

***********

(The inspiration for Monica's visual aid, by the one and only @indignantlemur 😄)

[lorillee]

naruto character social media headcanons:

naruto: sakura made him a personal instagram account 3 years ago and he legitimately has opened it exactly twice (both times because sakura was asking him to pull something up). its just really not for him. honestly though that being said i feel like you could get him to be a vine creator you KNOWWWW he's abusing his shadow clone ability for this

sasuke: lets be so honest hes not touching any of that with a 50 foot pole, ever. NEXT!

sakura: definitely has a personal instagram, could also see her having a fitness instagram as well. given shes also canonically a fujoshi lets be so honest she has an ao3 and probably a fandom twitter account for liking/rting fanart as well

sai: also does not get the appeal at first. i think sakura made a valiant attempt to convince him to make an instagram account for his art but this does not pan out. it is only when ino shows him twitter's incredible versatility for haters that he understands what the hype is all about.

yamato: my immediate instinct would be to say no probably not HOWEVER i think it would be really funny if he was incredibly active on r/architecture and literally nothing else

kakashi: for the most part a hard no. however i do believe he is casually active on an incredibly obscure forum for the icha icha series. at some point naruto or sakura accidentally see that he has it pulled up on his phone and spend a solid like week hunting down his account and reading through and making fun of all of his posts. he does not know this happened

guy: honestly i think he has a facebook account that is exclusively used to find and post boomer style workout memes and positivity posts. he sends an egregious amount of the aforementioned workout memes to kakashi and lee (enthusiasm of the receivers is about what you can probably expect)

neji: decidedly proclaims social media to be a cesspool and a waste of time, does not partake. he does, however, have a meticulously upkept letterboxd account with extensive and incredibly thorough reviews of everything he's ever watched. (i believe weekly team guy movie nights can be very frustrating for him personally because neji as a person prefers films that are very introspective/character driven/abstract but the rest of his teammates more than anything are interested in watching a bunch of guys beat the living snot out of each other)

tenten: she's got an instagram where she posts short clips of training using her vast arsenal of weapons - lee and neji are frequent guest appearances as sparring partners. i also could see her having a tumblr or some sort of blog to geek out over the latest thing she's picked up

lee: i think he has facebook and instagram but purely to very enthusiastically comment on guy and tenten's posts. otherwise its really not his thing

ino: YOU KNOWWWWWWWWW SHES GOT IT ALL. tiktok instagram twitter triple threat she's definitely an influencer she's big in the makeup scene but also has huge kpop side accounts. shes definitely always getting into drama but always comes out on top in the end - a bit of a controversial figure but overall has a frankly militant fanbase. always up to date on the latest idol drama and you KNOW she'll be posting about it. also has a defunct tumblr account that which was definitely an obscenely popular aesthetics blog back in the site's heyday, but in modern times has since moved her collage boards to pinterest

choji: you know this i know this we all know this HES A FOOD BLOGGER!!!!!!!! in this world blogspot is still alive and well and hes making a killing on there. i think he would also have a tiktok account though for short review videos usually featuring his friends where they go to taste test new restaurants/dishes. i think he also has a personal instagram account just for posting friend photos and whatnot

shikamaru: very casual reddit scroller, when hes bored he'll trawl through a few political subreddits and perhaps r/shogi. never posts and has accounts on basically nothing.

hinata: type of person to HAAAAATE online drama so bad it makes her sick with stress just thinking about it. if she uses social media at all i think she has a diligently kept aesthetic tumblr blog where she posts photos and doesnt interact with anybody ever

hidan: active 4chan user.

jiraiya: its like if you took a facebook-exclusive boomer and dropped him into twitter without warning. his account was supposed to exclusively be his platform for his writing but he gave up that pretense a long time ago and now its basically just whatever he wants to put on there. we all already know what this looks like

orochimaru: saw suigetsu scrolling on twitter once and got an extensive rundown on how it works and the kind of people that frequent it. finds it fascinating in the way that one might study bacteria in a petri dish cultivated in toxic sludge, but thats about the extent of it. boruto-era however he is an active nextdoor and facebook user and exclusively posts wine mom memes

tsunade: has an official account as the hokage but its entirely run by shizune. honestly i dont think she would find much interest or enjoyment in anything social media has to offer her

suigetsu: you already know hes posting bad tiktok thirst traps. theyre really terrible . absolutely lives for kicking up drama in people's comment sections and runs an incredibly popular twitter ragebait account with more passion than hes put into anything else in his life ever

[wisteriasymphony]

Inceldrien!AU - Dead on Arrival

(co-written by @pyrusinc )

DISCLAIMER: offensive and derogatory language, homophobic slurs. These guys are 4channers.

“Fuck you, you— dumb bucket of festering discharge!”

A silence cut through the room, slaughtering the tension with it. As the argument laid dead and bleeding on the floor, Adrien looked into Claudia’s eyes for what might’ve been the first time. 

“…You’ve read Homestuck?” He asked. 

They somehow spoke it in unison: “Past me is the dumbest bucket of festering discharge I ever fell ass backwards into.”

A few more breaths as they studied each other. Then, Adrien sat back down on his couch. He felt like he was going to fall over, maybe even through the floor. Suddenly he had no clue where he was, or what he was doing. And yet he was curious.

“You didn’t tell me you read Homestuck.”

Her tone matched his in its humble honesty. “You never asked,” she confessed, sitting down beside him. “How far along are you?”

For what had to have been a good half an hour, Adrien had the first real conversation in his life about something he was interested in. Gabriel would never really be able to understand half of the things that Adrien could talk about anyways, and it wasn’t like people were ever clamoring for these sorts of opinions from him. All of his accumulated knowledge of Homestuck and MLP and such could only ever be expressed on image boards or forums, and it was only now that he realized it felt so much better to say these things out loud. He was making her laugh—He, Adrien Agreste, was able to make someone laugh from something he said!—and she was responding enthusiastically, like she knew everything he wanted to say before he could even think it himself. He leaned back onto the couch as he kept talking about the best classpects, Claudia would lean back as well and prop up her chin with her hand, and for a moment she even tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and he noticed it as it happened.

 It was only as Adrien reached for his Mountain Dew that he realized just how wrong and stupid and disgusting this was. Why of all things did he have to be enjoying her company? Claudia’s company?

He set down his drink as soon as he picked it up, turning his face away from hers. Adrien didn’t want to make it clear that he was panicking. 

“Get out,” he interrupted in the middle of one of her sentences that he wasn’t even listening to anyways. “You should go.”

Claudia’s words caught in her throat. Goddamn her for letting her guard down, for actually letting herself talk to Adrien. There was no reason to even be upset, and yet there she was, body suddenly numb as she scrambled to figure out just what she said that Adrien was suddenly so mad about. It’s not like she had a reason to care anyways—Why the hell would she ever give a shit about what he felt? It wasn’t like she was having a good time, that simply wasn’t possible. At best, Claudia was humoring that idiot, there was no way she was enjoying herself, there was no way that she found his smile something worth looking at when he talked. Adrien Agreste was the most irritating, pathetic, retarded putrid fuckwad she had ever met in her life. And it was a blessing that he was finally cognizant enough to give her the chance to leave that she’d clearly been itching for, even if it didn’t feel right to stand up after sitting still for all that time. 

So it didn’t catch her off guard. Nor did it hurt.

“Fine,” she spat back, grabbing her things. “I’ll go. You’re an asshole anyways.”

Adrien knew that Claudia could’ve shut the door harder, maybe even slammed it shut. But despite that... it was the loudest he’d ever heard that door get shut in his life. The last echoes of it lingered for hours after she was gone. 

—

There was a certain silence that fell over the places the two would normally argue. The traffic died down significantly over the next week, as if a solemn understanding had somehow made its way through without actually being shared, and the whole site was in an awkward phase of mourning. Claudia stopped posting entirely, and that included her short stories—no creepypastas, no jokes, no snide retellings of conversations. She knew he’d be able to read anything she posted, no matter where it was, and that sucked out all of the joy. Adrien made it clear he didn’t want to hear her thoughts, so she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her share them. Radio silence. 

Adrien would click through every board until his fingers ached. General, Paranormal, Music, Anime, News and Politics—Somewhere there had to be something. The faintest whisper of activity, a muttered comment or snide chatter of her voice, something she would try to hide from him in vain. Adrien couldn't tell exactly why he felt this pain in his chest as his search continued to draw blanks. He felt like shit, but there was no reason for it. No justification for that gnawing, rolling discomfort settling in his stomach that made it impossible for him to focus on himself or even get up from his chair: Adrien had every right to kick her out. He couldn't put a finger on the cause of the pain, but he could put his fingers on his keyboard. And so he continued to look. Not eating, not sleeping. Just searching for something.

Click, click, click. 

He doesn’t want to admit he knows, but he does. Maybe the screen will eventually burn through his retinas and he won’t have to put effort into thinking about why that flash of hurt across her face when her mouth snapped shut mid-sentence wouldn’t exit his mind. Maybe the ache in his fingers will distract from the image of her hands (which had been animatedly gesturing the entire conversation in what can’t be cute, but instead the most annoying thing in the world) suddenly freezing and falling to her lap. Maybe he’ll just die on the spot from all this, and he won’t think about missing her presence. 

He wasn’t going to apologize.

He wasn’t going to apologize.

He wasn’t going to apologize.

intothetrash@aol.com sorry. -a.a. creepytan@aol.com i don’t want to talk to you

Adrien found it hard to look at the screen. It was just an arrangement of pixels. Letting out a sharp breath, his fingers flew to the keys without really even thinking. 

I SHOULD BE THE ONE WHO DOESNT WANT TO FUCKING TALK TO YOU CUNT YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN ACT LIKE THAT?? DO YOU HEAR YOUR STUPID FUCKING SELF?? YOU FUCK WITH ME LIKE THIS ALL THE GODDAMN TIME THIS IS CALLED KARMA YOU DUMB FUCKING SLUT

Delete, delete, delete. The cursor flew back to where it was, erasing everything. Adrien took his hands off the keyboard and clutched his head, sighing as his palms dug into his eyes. 

He didn’t actually think any of that. None of it was true, and he didn’t have it in him to convince himself otherwise. It wasn’t her fault that she made him feel so horrible, even if he wanted to want to feel that way. Adrien just felt so tired staring at the screen, at those seven little words—“I don’t want to talk to you”, so much stupid pain somehow in just seven words!—and he couldn’t understand why, not consciously. In his gut he could feel the reason, though. He did deserve to feel like shit for what he said, and for everything he’d ever said to her. Adrien had called her names, berated and belittled her, insulted her very existence. It was only the crime of causing that distraught look on her face that brought even the notion of wrongdoing to him. Somehow, he’d been horrible to her so many times, and it was all fine? It didn’t mean anything tangible. It was fun.

There was nothing fun about the way the light in her eyes dimmed.

intothetrash@aol.com i deserve that. but you can still talk -a.a. intothetrash@aol.com even if it's not to me. -a.a.

God, as if she needed his fucking permission for shit. Did he really think that everything she did online, anything anyone ever did online, was just for his entertainment? She wrote for herself, damnit, not some greasy failure who thought the world revolved around him just cause his daddy brought home a big paycheck. If she wanted to get off the internet forever, she could, and Adrien wouldn’t be able to do shit about it. Claudia wasn’t just going to give him more of her stuff to look over just because he was so benevolent as to approve it. 

But also, if this was the first time he’d ever apologized for something in his life, Claudia could believe it. When would anybody ever ask for an apology from Adrien Agreste, heir to the multimillion enterprise that was Maison de Mode Gabriel? Claudia couldn’t imagine him in a positon where he was required to repent. Plus, given his caustic personality, it’s not like he’d ever freely debase himself with an apology to any random person… So what did it say about him, about her, that he was willing to reach out on his own like that? Make an entirely new email just to reach out to her?

And, well… what did it say about her that she’d even checked? She rarely used creepytan@aol anymore. How did she know that it was him?

creepytan@aol.com ok

She just wouldn’t think about it too much. Maybe it was sweet, in some twisted way, but that didn’t have to mean something to her. It was nice to just be able to breathe again, to post the next creepypasta she’d been holding onto for a few days now. Claudia knew he’d probably be one of the first to see it, maybe even within seconds, but that wasn’t necessarily a new thing. Obviously Adrien had been stalking through her shit online. That was how their whole shtick went. As she cues up the Paranormal board, Claudia decides she doesn’t care if he sees her talk again. Whether she believes herself is a different story, a story she doesn’t want to listen to. Either way, the boards are revived, and traffic flows once more on those shared spaces. There’s a silent sigh of relief, all in understood unison, by the denizens of those foul internet crannies that the silence was over.

Still, though... something must have happened. It’s unusual for Creepytan and Richfag to not cross paths for this long. Minutes, hours, then days. The concept is unthinkable: They’re practically all over each other, like rabid dogs clamped shut on the other’s tail, running around in circles. They’re both posting, sure, but there’s been no interaction…

File: [wtf.png] CREEPYTAN V RICHFAG LOLFEST DEAD?  Anonymous 02/10/12 No.275607 >bros >wtf happened

[broodingheroine]

tmagp thoughts (this will be pure nonsense I just need to write it down)

alice is so tim coded

obviously there's a connection anyone can make to the multiple statements abt urban exploration/spelunking in tma and the redcanary forum thread.... it invites the horrors (connection to danny?)

gwen is a ✨️bouchard✨️ (implication that while its a parallel universe the same ppl still exist? supports possibility of spelunking forum thread connecting to danny somehow (not actually super sold on that but seen a lot of ppl mention it so))

colin is definitely going to succumb to the horrors :/ (either first to die OR..... this universes version of an avatar?)

CHESTER AND NORRIS!!!

I'm of the firm opinion that they're jmart BUT! but but but! I do believe they're echoes of who they were, this just so happens to be Somewhere Else.

also! yes I understand that we most likely will Not get any tma characters in any meaningful way in tmagp, however I also believe that alex and jonny couldve very easily.... not...... voiced the text to speeches....... like yeah I dont think we're getting jmart as we knew them but..... come on

also also. the text to speeches got less robot sounding the longer they were reading and it really reminded me of how ppl reading statements would slowly get invested as they were reading and emote as if it were happening to them.

sam is on the archivist (or tmagp equivalent) pipeline already yikes

the turpentine line was raw as fuck. so was the canary one obviously. don't want to beat a dead horse by talking abt that bc so many others have already said it. but! the institute is deadly stay away!!

the sound engineering is god tier I love all the bleeps and bloops

colin knows smth is Watching. inadvertently feeding the eye by being paranoid? does the eye even exist the same way it did in tma?

theres definitely smth to be said abt whether or not robert smirke did his thing the way he did in tma and if anyone in the know uses the same classification or if the oiar is the only group categorizing. the fears always kind of blurred together at certain points so maybe without the human interpretation of it being 14 distinct entities it's more of an..... amalgam?

magnus institute is in a different place which is interesting. if it was built for the same reasons (outside of just research) is there another panopticon esque structure underneath? (brings us back to if smirke was doing his thing)

very curious to see if theres gonna be a leitner books equivalent.

I deeply deeply deeply desire a michaela salesa cameo at some point. he's one of my fav side characters.

sam and gwen using classic horror characters to help him try and memorize the classification categories was very cute

another thing I'm sure everyone has talked abt already but the whole world wide WEB thing and possible jmart in the computers and omg they're in the web and the oiar is part of the web and blah blah blah u get the image.

lena is intriguing to me. my guess is she's going to be a gertrude esque character who knows at least the basics of what's really happening and is trying to put a stop to it.

I havent seen anyone talk abt like...... what IS the magnus protocol. like tma was the archives in the magnus institute. the magnus archives. self explanatory from like ep 1. what the hell is the magnus protocol. is it smth fr3-d1 will run? or the text to speeches? is it tmagp's version of a ritual? using protocol to reference the updated tech from tma? is it smth the actual organization has to run in the event of Something Happening? WHAT THE PROTOCOL WHATS IT FORRRRR

I know nothing abt the ARG shit, just to note that

okay I think that's it for now..... feel free to discuss in the notes lol

[isdilsu]

Boys down at the lab have no idea what could be causing those deaths, Mr. Geto. Victims had everything, bite marks, burn marks, you name it. Like they were attacked by some sort of dragon!

Perhaps, Lieutenant, they were attacked by a Cursed Spirit? You know, those monsters made out of human vice, that people keep talking about as of late

Cursed spirits? Oh, my wife could tell you all about them, sir. She's been up all night yesterday, reading about it on some forums. The entire last week she's been forcing me to master my, oh now I can't remember what that was called.

Oh! This one time I'm watching the tv in the living rokm and she tells me, all worried, that there is this Special Grade whatchamacallit right next to me! I look around, and you know what I tell her? I tell her, Honey. The only thing I see next to me is our dog.

Oh an I guess i oughta ask. Do you also believe in those things, Mr. Geto? For a man of your status.. oh, I mean, the situation is pretty dire, I wouldn't like it, if you happened to just be cracking a joke sir.

I am serious, Lieutenant. Since you've exhausted all other options, perhaps expanding the possibilities to supernatural causes can give you, at the very least, a new angle. I am rather involved with spiritual groups so it's natural I've developed an interest in those things myself. Now, Lieutenant, I don't mean to be rude, but I do have clients waiting for me, so I must ask you to leave

Oh, of course sir, I wouldn't want to disturb your work. But one more thing before I leave. You should be careful. Whatever keeps killing those guys, it seems to only target people who used to be your clients, and filed for bankruptcy afterwards. If I were you, I'd be reinforcing my domain with some charms and, uhh, bariers. At least that's what my wife tells me I should do.

"Domain"..., what peculiar choice of words Lieutenant. But not to worry. I'm not as foolish as those monkeys to lose to a mere B grade spirit.

Oh, but I didn't say anything about its grade, sir! But as it happens, we had hired a contractor from this Jujutsu Tech place and they said the same thing! A Grade B cursed spirit. Funny how that happens, don't you think?

Oh, I must've heard about it from a client, pay it no mind. Now, I believe I must go. And I would rather you not stop me, Columbo.

Oh, but of course. You must be busy with work. Oh! I finally remembered! You know the thing my wife was teaching me? I finally rembered what it was called, you're gonna get a crack out of this, Mr. Geto.

Do enlighten me, Columbo.

[spurgie-cousin]

I never thought I’d see the cult I grew up in on your page, but I’m so glad there are other people recognizing how awful the SDA (seventh day Adventist) church is. I was raised by a pastor and my whole family are still members. They refuse to believe that I no longer share their beliefs and constantly try to convince me to “give the church another chance.” they do not consider me a Christian because I’m no longer in their church. Growing up I didn’t know anyone who had ever managed to leave and to this day only one friend has left. There isn’t a strong ex-sda community that I know of and most resources are hard to find because they are buried by the church. The church as a whole is very doomsday esque and even as a kid growing up in the church I had so so much anxiety about it. There are a ton of rules which also contributes to the anxiety and the church culture is super judgmental and gossipy. I never understood why we had such different beliefs + practices from all the other churches and now I find it outrageous that I believed those things. I’m interested to see what else you come across and I am now going to see what ex-sda creators I can find (I don’t use TikTok) to relate to lol.

What's funny is I grew up in a town that had a ridiculous number of churches for its size, one of those being a fair-sized SDA church, but I don't remember ever meeting anyone from it. My church was the largest so it would organize multi-church events sometimes and there were only a few groups who never participated, SDA included (though to be fair I don't know if they just didn't want to, or if my church was discriminating lol).

So it feels crazy that I'm just now learning how cult-y they are. I think the church in my hometown was kind of an anomaly because their numbers are pretty small comparatively, something like 1.1 million in the US compared to ~90 million evangelicals, which is probably why they don't have a huge presence in the ex-Christian community.

The creator I posted is also the daughter of an Adventist pastor, it looks like she's only on tiktok right now (@songbirdsstory) but here are a few other places I've been reading ex-Adventist stories on platforms besides tiktok (also I will check out to Former Adventist podcast as well!):

Haystacks & Hell is a podcast and instagram account that collects ex-Adventist stories (that link takes you to their Instagram, their podcast info is in the link in their bio)

r/exAdventist which is a subreddit for ex-members of the church (if you're unfamiliar with reddit it's basically like a place for very specific online forums lol. people have conversations, tell stories, etc)

r/exChristian is another subreddit for ex-Christians as a while, but it has quite a few threads from ex-SDA that I've been reading. That link should take you to the list without having to search around.

and I do have a question but it's sensitive, so I understand if you're not comfortable answering: what was the generally accepted punishment for breaking the rules, like the health message etc? I know SongBirdSings from that video has said she suffered a lot of physical abuse, but she's also insinuated in other videos that that wasn't how it was for everyone. So I was just curious about what most people tolerated as acceptable reprimanding in the church.

[rubbership]

its really interesting reading homestuck analysis from someone whos much older than me and read homestuck as it was coming out as a 20 year old. because i love everything they say, but then they also say things like "dont assume hussie has a grander scheme, he isnt making commentary on groups of people socially, a lot of it is just him making fun of a single guy on the forums" and i just find that such a weird thing to say because frank;y. frankly. both are true. do you not think both are true? this was said specifically about caliborn, and how you cant read into what he says about amsculinity too hard because caliborn was also making fun of artists who would lurk on the homestuck forums and was specifically based off a few guys. and. and like i get that. i get that you dont want to assume meaning where there isnt to be confirmed. but also TO write a compelling character like caliborn you ahve to be willing to engage with the social aspects of what causes a person to be like that in the first place. like regardless of who caliborn is parodying, hes parodying a person. a person who exists in real life on earth. who has been subjected to americas circus wheel of gender expectations and stereotypes. so to accurately portray the person shes making fun of i also feel like you have to be conciously aware of the type of things that CREATE a person like caliborn (and hussie is, considering caliborn is the way he is due to an oppressive and inconsistant parent figure and total isolation and was forced to only understand war and games) even if youre just doing it to make fun of a single person

this is something i wish more people would consider. when you write a character based off your ex or a single person, youre also making a character based off of all those life experiences that the person youre writing about has went through and to make that a successful character you have to interact with their traumas with an air of understanding an empathy. not saying hussie is "overly empathetic" or whatever, but what i am saying is that even if she did write caliborn based off of ONE troll on her forums (unlikely, considering caliborn is also highly based off herself) that ONE troll still exists within the imperialist system of america, which homestuck is directly criticizing.

[beardedmrbean]

The papers all cover the government's framework budget settlement, which was announced late on Wednesday evening.

MTV has a list of the decisions. They include cuts to higher education funding, development aid and municipalities. There are also big income tax breaks targeted at higher earning taxpayers, a higher threshold for paying inheritance tax, and corporate tax reductions to benefit Finland's companies.

The tax cuts are an expensive measure, and to stay compliant with the government's goal of stabilising the state budget by 2027 ministers agreed to take a billion euros out of the state pension fund to cover a likely shortfall in the 2027 state budget.

Iltalehti carries criticism of that plan from an economist at the VATT Institute for Economic Research who likens the move to taking out a payday loan.

What changed?

Helsingin Sanomat has analysis of the budget and in particular the shift in government rhetoric around state debt.

Last November Finance Minister Riikka Purra (Finns) had said that there was no room for tax cuts, as the state finances and the wider economy were in such poor shape.

Now the tune has changed, and the so-called dynamic feedback created when you cut taxes for high earners is expected to boost the economy.

That is contested, with many economists and opposition politicians arguing that the research does not support such reliance on growth to finance future outgoings.

And even in the optimistic scenarios published by the Finance Ministry, there is a time lag between the tax reductions going into force and the economic benefits being felt.

The prime reason for the decisions, according to HS, is political. Government parties had agreed that they would make difficult decisions and cuts in the first two years of the government, and then have a chance to give tax cuts once the economy had revived.

That revival is yet to be seen, but the government is sticking to the plan anyway. One reason could be that the plan to stabilise the finances is now delayed until the end of the decade anyway, thanks in part to increased defence spending.

Former Finns Party operative in Murmansk

Iltalehti reports on Sakari Linden, a former Finns Party official who was recently in Murmansk for Russia's International Arctic Forum, where he gave a speech in English that was broadcast on Russia Today.

He was also interviewed by a Finnish Putin propagandist, Janus Putkonen, who posted pictures of the meeting on his social media channels.

Putkonen has spent time in the occupied Donbas region in Ukraine, publishing content in Finnish from the Russian perspective.

The Murmansk conference was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who spoke of his plans for the militarisation of the Arctic, and increasing Russian military capabilities in the region.

The Lithuanian intelligence agency has stated that attendees in Murmansk are often targeted for recruitment by Russian security services. Linden denied that he had been approached in Russia.

Linden has served as Laura Huhtasaari's (Finns) special advisor when she was an MEP, and written on EU policy for the Finns Party's think tank. He currently says he is a "geopolitical analyst" and consultant living in Brussels.

Linden told IL that he is an "independent thinker" and went to Murmansk in that spirit.

"Finns are in the midst of a powerful Russia hysteria, and they are subject to huge social pressure," said Linden. "I'm not interested in pressure from fanatics. I would like to say that Finland should have its own view and connections to all power centres, including Russia."

Linden has criticised the Finns Party leadership as "globalist", and told IL that he currently has no connection with the party.

[mundanemoongirl]

I’ve read 32 books this year. Some were mysteries, some were thrillers, some were realistic fiction, and most were fantasy. So here’s my top 5 out of every book I’ve read!

But first, my honorable mentions

This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi has some of the most beautiful descriptions and wordings that I have read. I also love the Persian culture in it. I'm always fascinated when reading about different cultures and this is one I don’t know much about. It felt unique and authentic. The reason this one isn’t in my top 5 is because I felt it relied too much on tropes and the plot was a bit cliche. The second book especially suffers from this.

Going Dark by Melissa De La Cruz is a mystery I thought was so good it helped to inspire my own. It touches on important topics like racism and mental illnesses. I love how social media is used to find clues and I was so invested in the story that I stayed up late every night to know more. The only thing keeping this book from being perfect to me is that about halfway through, the backstory is told to the reader. I would have rather the characters find it out for themselves.

When I tell you I loved Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao so much I wrote a three page paper on it and submitted it for my communications final (I got an A). I love character driven stories and Xifeng is one of my favorite characters of all time. Her arc progresses at a perfect pace and I love seeing her use the few skills she possesses to get what she wants. As a dark fantasy writer, I appreciate that the book doesn’t shy away from gruesome aspects. The reason this book isn’t in my top five is because I wanted to see Xifeng’s rule as empress. That’s it. I just wanted more Xifeng.

And now my top 5 under the cut

5. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is not the type of book I’d normally read, but it blew away all of my expectations and I absolutely adored it. At first, I didn’t really like Monique’s character. I wasn’t interested in her failed marriage and I was pretty annoyed every time she didn’t understand what was being said to her (which happens way too often), but as she learned from Evelyn I was really rooting for her.

It was Evelyn’s story that wouldn’t let me stop reading. It was similar to Xifeng in a way where she started as a girl who was pretty, but had nothing, and manipulated her way to becoming a superstar. I was especially gripped by Evelyn’s insistence that Monique will hate her. I just needed to keep going to find out why.

There were a lot of unique aspects that I liked, such as the chapter titles. They were so fun and I kept repeated them in my head. I also like how parts of the story are told through forums and news articles. Other than the fact this this is a unique aspect, I liked it because we got to hear a different perspective than the person telling the story.

Also, yay for a bisexual main character! It was done so well and respectful, and not the stereotypical cheater character. I have been waiting my whole life for this type of representation.

The last thing I want to say about this one is that Reid really makes an art of writing. There are so many quotable lines and you can tell so much thought was put into every word.

4. The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

It’s a pretty cliche story: a princess must reclaim her throne. But The Queen of the Tearling works so well because of its main character, Kelsea. She’s such a beautifully complex character. On one hand, she wants to prove herself as queen. But on the other, she wants to be free to be a teenage girl. She rules with compassion for her people. But she also has an underlying ruthlessness and short temper. She looks to the future by examining the past, and how can you not root for a character so strong that she demanded her throne with a knife in her shoulder?

I appreciate that this book didn’t go the trope route and have the ruler of the rival kingdom become Kelsea’s lover. It’s fine one time, but it’s way overdone, and Kelsee’s strengths shine through more without this trope.

I like how each chapter opens up with a quote. Like the articles in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, this gives the reader insight into what other characters think.

I have to say that even though this book blew me away, the last book has the worst ending I have ever read in my life. It was lazy, dismissive of the themes throughout the series, and just exasperating because it erases the growth of the characters and kingdom. I have no idea why Johansen would write it into existence and it somewhat tarnished my view on the series.

3. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Is it really surprising that a Hunger Games book is in my top 5? I was hesitant at first to read it because I thought it would be a sympathy story or a cash grab, but I'm so glad that I gave it a try because it was so much more than I thought.

I feel like it's a theme on my list that I like to see stories where something small slowly evolves into something big. That's a big part of why I love this book. We get to see how the games went from something no one liked to the sporting event we know it as. It was a bonus to see that Snow's impact on the games as well.

I loved getting back into the Hunger Games universe, especially now that we get more of what the capitol is like. I have to admit that I haven't read the original trilogy in almost a decade so my memory is a little shaky, but I don't remember anything about the capitol being poor at one point. I liked this detail and getting to know capitol kids like Clemensia because it makes the capitol more complex. Before, I only knew it as a completely evil, selfish, privileged group of people, but now we can understand it better.

I love Lucy Gray's character. As a former musician, I appreciate that her power is through song and I enjoyed reading the meaning in her lyrics. I was kicking my feet reading about the Hanging Tree song and her teaching Snow about katniss roots because they live on to haunt him 60 years later. As always, Collins knows how to incorporate so much meaning into her writing.

The only thing I disliked is that it started to drag in Part III.

2. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

This one was heavy, but I'm thankful to McCurdy for being vulnerable and sharing this raw story. As someone who grew up on iCarly, she was an important part of my childhood. I listened to the audiobook version, which just made it all the more personal.

You can tell from the writing that McCurdy was meant to be a writer. She somehow manages to make such a sad story humorous, and I found myself getting lost in her the way she describes background information that I didn't even notice that she deviated from the main topic until she brought us back. Not to mention, the writing sounds like she is telling a story directly to you. It reminds me of experts like Bell Hooks, someone who I have described as having a style like talking to a close friend.

McCurdy also has a deep understanding of herself and her emotions, even during times in which she didn't understand nor want to understand the harm that was done to her and how she copes with it. It's obvious to the audience what's going on, but not to her, and she writes it in a way where we can understand the truth of her circumstances while also understanding her point of view from when she was experiencing trauma. I doubt many people can understand themselves this well.

Each chapter had me hooked. I kept telling myself that her life couldn't get worse, but then it did. There were times when I nearly cried, and once when I was so shocked that I involuntarily covered my mouth with my hand and couldn't move it back for a minute. This book will make you feel everything.

I hate how some people are shaming the book just because of the title because this is such an important story, and if you just read it you would understand the title completely.

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery all in one? So much diversity that you can swim in it? Quite possibly the cutest romance to ever exist? I didn't know the perfect book existed and yet here it is.

I knew this book would be a favorite of mine from the moment I saw it. You have a beautiful, colorful cover on one side, and a description on the other saying a girl has to destroy her first love in order to get magic. I still can't believe that this is Sambury's debut book.

One thing I love about Blood Like Magic (and its sequel) is that despite all the fantastical elements, the books feel so real. Voya's family feels so real because they aren't rich, they aren't powerful in a social aspect, and they aren't perfect. The cast of characters feel real because POCs, gay, and trans people are going to exist no matter what. The romance feels real because they don't instantly fall in love. The plot feels real because sometimes everything will go wrong, no matter how hard you try to make it right. And of course there's the realest aspect of them all: all Black grandmas are going to have attitude.

Ok, I have to talk more about the romance because Luc and Voya are so stinking cute. I was actually squealing and kicking my feet while reading because it's so obvious that they adore each other and can't even tell. I didn't even like the enemies to lovers trope before I read this book, but Sambury does it perfectly. I also like that she makes a distinction between physical and romantic attraction because I think it gets muddled in a lot of popular books these days.

Voya's such a relatable character. We all struggle to make decisions sometimes. We never want to be left out or hurt the people we care about. Also, her name is so pretty and it doesn't even mean anything?!

Do I even have to mention that all the different types of magic are so fun and creative? Do I even have to mention that all the advanced technology seems like it could really happen? Everyone go read Blood Like Magic and Blood Like Fate right now.

[who-is-page]

hey! i'm new to this community so im so sorry if this is rude. i just heard about otherkin and therians from sophieinwonderland? but she said things about how being attracted to otherkin and therian people is like zoophilia and stuff. i'm sure those posts are still up on her blog if you want to look. anyways, that made me feel weird? so that's why i'm asking you. you seem to know a lot of things? based on my vibe check. so i was just wondering what your thoughts on this are.

I've had sophieinwonderland blocked for a really long time now, so I had to take a quick jaunt through her blog to check this-- I'm guessing you're referring to this post from 2022, where she says "Zoophilia means an attraction to animals. [...] I think we can all agree that biological nonhuman animals cannot consent and that bestiality is wrong. But what actually constitutes zoophilia is so much murkier. [...] if attraction to animals is zoophilia, is attraction to animal-identifying biological humans?" (It's important to note that Sophie states elsewhere on her blog that the TL;DR of what she was trying to convey in this post and the related debacle surrounding it is that she doesn't believe in thoughtcrimes, doesn't want non-offending paraphiles harassed or attacked, and supports human-bodied animal-persons in relationship with other consenting human-bodied adults. These are all pretty reasonable stances to hold, all things considered, and we don't want to conflate her with actual Zetas and bestialists-- she just seems to accidentally be repeating some questionable rhetoric without realizing it, because she isn't familiar with the therian community and its unique missing stairs in this regard. Source)

So from an outsider perspective, regarding folks who aren't particularly familiar with the otherkin and therian communities and who don't know better, this can seem like a genuine point or a fair question to bring up. What people don't actually often realize is that not only is this not true, but this sort of rhetoric is actually most often used as a bestialist dogwhistle. Let me explain.

So first off: no, having a partner who is an otherkin, a therian, a non-human fictionkin, or who otherwise is a human that identifies as an nonhuman animal does not make someone a zoophile nor a bestialist. Having sex with your human-bodied consenting adult partner is not bestiality. Loving them for who they are is not zoophilia. Zoophilia is, first and foremost in this context, an attraction to real-life actual animals. Things like thinking Mufasa LionKing is hot, or being a murrsuiter, or following a therian on OnlyFans, doesn't count.

(For those interested, there actually is a specific orientation term for people who are strictly alterhuman4alterhuman-- the term is "Medusan," it was coined in 2018, and it's actually more popular than you think.)

Now, here's where the unique problems of specifically the therian community comes into play, and why what sophieinwonderland is implying here is teetering close to an unintentional dogwhistle on her part, something she wouldn't have known because she's not a member of our communities. If you're not interested in the history aspect of this and why referring to therianthropy or otherkinship as potentially or inherently zoophilic is a dogwhistle, you can jump-ship here and I won't blame you-- I'm putting it below the cut for brevity's sake.

The therian community, if you're not aware, has had an issue in the past where several long-term, respectable members were revealed to be bestialists, either they themselves participating in bestiality or being knowingly supportive of those who do. These individuals were (and still are) also, unfortunately, in charge of or otherwise held leadership positions in some of the biggest and oldest therian and otherkin forums-- namely Therian Guide, OtherkinPhenomena (who shared a majority of its staff with Therian Guide), and the Werelist (who also shared staff with Therian Guide). You can check out my Therian Guide Beware for details and citations, because that's where most of this initial explosion of "WTAF" stemmed from.

When this all came out in roughly 2017-2019, it created complete community chaos. People felt betrayed, and rightly so. There were a lot of divisions in the community about where to draw the line, when, and how. And the bestialists intentionally made everything as messy as possible during the course of it all.

The bestialists largely justified their abuse through their own therianthropy and connection to animality, and when that didn't work, they pivoted to trying to include as much of the therian community under the "zoophilia" umbrella as possible in order to argue that it was natural or normal for therians to sexually abuse animals-- you can see an example of them doing that here, in Therian Guide owner DustWolf's baseless Twitter assertion that "60% of all therians are zoo[phile]s." (mirror).

For the record, no, 60% of therians are not zoophiles, and no current statistics from the community supports this. I wrote a Twitter thread in 2022 debunking this claim. But this also ties into the next point-- DustWolf isn't just referring to people who are attracted to real life animals. DustWolf is also referring to bestialists in this statistic, even if it's not immediately apparent.

The bestialists tried to paint this picture of all therians being pro-bestiality by trying to expand the definition of the term "zoophile" in public discourse and muddle its meaning as much as possible, to mean everything from "person who commits bestiality" to "person who had a crush on Nick Wilde as a teenager" to "person who experiences a sex drive and who also identifies as a nonhuman animal." They also used anti-bestiality backlash to try and lay claim on anyone who got caught in the cross-fire, playing the sympathetic shoulder to people who weren't bestialists or even zoophiles to get them to join up in their communities, and they coined terms like "zootherian" to try and reinforce a nonexistent connection between bestiality and therianthropy. It was, to summarize it succinctly, a complete clusterfuck. Nowadays, bestialists have also picked up queer social justice rhetoric and language to try and argue for the legalization of bestiality, though this wasn't as prevalent 2 years ago, which is its own issue.

Because of all this, assertions and implications that therians and otherkin are by default zoophiles, or that a majority of therians or otherkin are zoophiles, or that therianthropy and otherkinship can be intrinsically tied to zoophilia, or that zoophilia is queer and alterhuman, or even publicly identifying as a zoophile, is considered a major dogwhistle in the community. Historically when people who aren't just outright anti-kin have said these types of things to our communities, it's been to cover the asses of people who want to normalize and legitimize bestiality, or because the person in question is freely involved with communities and groups who have welcomed pro-bestiality attitudes. Saying that shit is a quick way to get blocked by a ton of alterhumans on most platforms. Sophie made a distinct division between "bestiality" and "zoophilia" in her commentary so it's obvious she didn't intend it that way, but it's still really not a great thing to say or imply because of the history behind it and the ways it's been used before.

So, to reiterate: no, people who date therians and otherkin aren't zoophiles, and people who say such are implying a lot more than they actively realize.